Sunday, 17 March 2013

Benedict Cumberbatch (can I just say, awesome name) plays Sherlock Holmes in the modern adaptation, and I think he is brilliant! He is definitely on my favourite actors list. If I even got close to his standard of acting I would be as happy as ever (and happier still if I could marry him!!) This clip where he acts drunk is hilarious. You must watch it. And that's an order.

"Why do we find it impossible to live in harmony with each other, the natural world, or even ourselves? Why is human history an endless, depressing saga of warefare, conflict, and oppression? Why do we seem impelled to destroy our environment, and hence ourselves as a species? Or, on a more psychological level, why do we suffer from constant restlessness and unease? Why is it that many of us are driven to accumulate more and more wealth, status and success, without any evidence that they provide us with contentment and fulfillment? Why, when we achieve our goals, do we only feel a short period of satisfaction, before restlessness emerges again, filling us with a desire to achieve more? There is really something wrong with our minds. We suffer from a basic psychological disorder that is the source of our dysfunctional behaviour. We're all slightly mad - and because the madness is so intrinsic to us, we're not aware of it. I call this 'humania' as in 'human madness.'"

An anecdote from the author about when he was at University, leaving his friends apartment feeling unwelcome.

"I left the halls of residence and walked through the students' union building, full of students drinking, talking, and laughing, and felt a terrible sense of isolation. I was completly alone here, trapped inside my own mental space with these thougths, and this sense of being a conscious entity, and nobody would ever be able to really know me, to experience what I was experiencing, to feel what I was feeling. I felt incredibly lonely, like a planet surrounded by millions of miles of empty space. The space inside my head where 'I' lived seemed cramped and oppressive, like a tiny dark prison cell. I felt I was experiencing the reality of my predicament as a human being, a terrible truth that everyone fought hard to avoid, and it seemed impossible to bear - we were all trapped inside ourselves, completely isolated and unknowable, as we were all trying so hard to escape, drinking and talking and watching TV to try and forget the emptiness inside us."

I would really love to dye my hair exactly like this, but as it's so dark I would have to bleach it first, and run the risk of ruining it.. But it would be so cool, blue AND pink, come'on! Where could that go wrong!? Oh well, I can still dream......